Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Chapter 2: Early River Civilizations Source: Ancient Civilizations Reference Library. Ed. Judson Knight and Stacy A. McConnell. Vol. 1: Almanac Volume 1: Egypt-India. Detroit: UXL, 2000. p49-82. Mesopotamia Mesopotamia, often called "the Cradle of Civilization," was the birthplace of the world's first civilization, Sumer. Mesopotamia was home to some of the world's greatest civilizations as well—not only of Sumer and the related culture of Akkad but also of Babylonia and Assyria. From these countries came the world's first legal system, the Code of Hammurabi, and the first great tale in Western civilization, the Gilgamesh Epic. The cuneiform (pronounced cue-NAY-iform) of Sumer was the first known form of writing and probably influenced Egyptian hieroglyphics. Israel felt the influence of Mesopotamia: Tales from the region provide the source for many of the great stories in the early chapters of the Bible, and later the Israelites would become captives of the Assyrians and Babylonians. From the mud of Sumerian huts to the stars mapped by the astronomers of Babylon, there were few aspects of ancient life not touched by the brilliant cultures of Mesopotamia. Where to find Mesopotamia The name Mesopotamia is Greek for "between rivers." On the eastern edge of this region, located in southwest Asia, is the Tigris (TIE-griss) River; to the west is the Euphrates (youFRAY-tees). The rivers flow out of the mountains in southeastern Turkey and ultimately come together before emptying into the Persian Gulf. Today the whole of Mesopotamia lies inside the nation of Iraq (ear-OCK), which has continued to be a focal point for the world's attention. It is a dry, parched land, but once its soil was so rich that historians refer to Mesopotamia as part of "The Fertile Crescent." The Fertile Crescent describes a strip of land that included the Nile Valley in Egypt as well as Mesopotamia. The region is so named because a line in the shape of a crescent, or half-moon, would join the two regions. Today the area surrounding Mesopotamia is called the Middle East. Sumer (3500–2000B.C.) Even though historians tend to treat Egypt as the world's first major civilization, in fact civilization first developed in the region of Sumer (SOO-mur). No one knows quite when this happened: the first settlers could have arrived anywhere between 6000 and 4500 B.C. This first group was the Ubaid (oo-BYE-ad) culture, which settled in the marshes of southern Mesopotamia—an area that remains marshy today. Historians know little about the Ubaidans, but they seem to have had a fairly sophisticated knowledge of irrigation, or methods of keeping crops watered. They also knew how to make pots of baked clay, and built their houses of reeds from the nearby marshes. At some point their area was invaded by Semitic (seh-MIT-ick) tribes from the southwest, in modern-day Saudi Arabia, but the two groups eventually became one through marriage. By about 3500 B.C., the intermarriage between various groups produced the people known as the Sumerians. The Sumerians in turn established virtually all the essentials of civilization over the next 800 years. An explosion of knowledge (3500–2750 B.C.) The Sumerians developed the plow, which could be drawn by an animal such as an ox. Before that time, people had planted and tended crops with simple handheld tools such as hoes. The plow made it possible to cultivate (plant crops on) a much larger area of ground in a much shorter period of time. This invention in turn made possible a well-developed agricultural economy, one of the main ingredients of civilization. Beginning from this basis in farming, Sumerian society emerged. Thanks to the plow, the Sumerians progressed beyond subsistence agriculture, or farming just to produce enough food to stay alive. As a result, there came to be a division of labor, meaning that not everybody had to do the same work for survival—another key ingredient of civilization. Some people, for instance, became craftsmen, or skilled workers who produced items according to their specialty. A craftsman might fashion clay pottery, for instance, or he might be a brick mason who built houses. In Egypt, masons built with stone, but Mesopotamia had very little rock. It also lacked other natural resources such as metals and timber; therefore, the people of Sumer became involved in trade with people in other parts of the Middle East. The term trade refers to the exchange of goods for units of value (money, for instance, or gold) between two individuals or two countries. A tradesman is a merchant or shop-owner, another class of people that developed in Sumer as business-people sold various goods. In those days, trade really meant trading, since there was not yet such a thing as money in the form of coins. Instead, people might barter (exchange) a bronze tool for grain with which to make bread or another Sumerian specialty, beer. With such a highly organized society, it is not surprising that the Sumerians established the world's first cities, or rather city-states, self-contained political units that were not part of a larger nation. These apparently resulted from people's mutual need to protect themselves from outside invasion. Of the dozen Sumerian city-states, the two most important were Ur and Uruk (OOrook). By modern standards, these city-states were not large: Uruk, for instance, took up less than half a square mile and contained only a few thousand people. . Ziggurats At the center of the Sumerian city-state of the 3000s B.C. was what one might describe as history's first skyscrapers: a ziggurat (ZIG-uh-raht). These were temple towers as tall as seven stories, each story of which was smaller than the one below. Thus they may have influenced the pyramids of Egypt, which began to appear about nine hundred years after the beginnings of Sumerian civilization: indeed, the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Zoser, resembled a ziggurat. The infamous Tower of Babel in the Bible's Book of Genesis was most likely a ziggurat; and in coming centuries, successive Mesopotamian cultures would perfect the ziggurat form. Ziggurats may have been at the physical center of Sumerian life, but the spiritual center lay with the gods, and with the political system. In most cultures, ancient and modern, the prevailing religious beliefs (or the lack of them) are closely linked with the form of government; and initially in Sumer, there was little distinction between the two. At the highest level in Sumerian society was the ensi, a priest who also served as leader and claimed to rule under the direction of the gods. Sumer developed a sophisticated religion with many gods. This type of religion is known as polytheistic which is a Greek word meaning, many gods. Instead of having one god that was responsible for everything, many early religions had many separate jobs with each god responsible for different forces of nature. Sumer’s four primary gods and goddesses supervised various aspects of creation. Second-rung deities such as Inanna (ee-NAH-nuh), the goddess of love and procreation (that is, having children), were typically linked with the notion of sustaining life. In all, Sumer worshipped over 2000 different gods and goddesses. Yet there was something in Sumer more splendid than its religion, its government, its cities, or its ziggurats. It was perhaps their most wonderful contribution to civilization: writing. Cuneiform Without writing, the only way to communicate ideas is verbally, which means that a thought can only travel so far. Only through writing can people convey complex thoughts and pass on detailed information, across time and space. Even before the Egyptians first used hieroglyphics, the Sumerians of the fourth millennium B.C. produced the first form of written language, cuneiform (cue-NAY-i-form). The name cuneiform is Latin for "wedgeshaped." Indeed its symbols do look like wedges placed at various angles to one another. Cuneiform may have influenced the development of hieroglyphics, with which it shared many similarities. As with hieroglyphics, the earliest cuneiform symbols were pictograms, or pictures of the thing they represented: a picture of a man, for instance, for "man." Some of these pictograms came to stand for other concepts related to the function of the object depicted. Thus a foot could symbolize walking, or symbols could be joined to produce a new idea. Hence the combination of pictograms for mouth and water meant drink. Eventually the Sumerians developed phonograms, symbols that stood for sounds or syllables. This made writing much easier. Before the introduction of phonograms, cuneiform had as many as 2,000 symbols. Later, the number was reduced to 600—which is still a large number compared to the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet. Because Sumerian writing was so complicated, it was performed by job specialists, called scribes. If you wanted to become a scribe you had to start attending a special school, called an Edubbas, as a child. Thus Sumerians also developed the first schools. The Sumerians used cuneiform to record the great Gilgamesh Epic (GIL-guh-mesh). It is the oldest recorded story in history and is about a great legendary king of Ur, named Gilgamesh. They also developed a much more practical use for cuneiform: keeping track of money. Using a sharp stick called a stylus, a Sumerian accountant would make an impression in a soft clay tablet, recording the details of who paid what to whom. Later the tablet would be baked and would harden, a permanent record of a business transaction. Thousands and thousands of years later, when archaeologists examined the ruins of Sumer, some of the first evidence of Sumerian culture that they found were what people today would call receipts! The Early Dynastic Period (2750–2300 B.C.) Eventually the ensi became greedy and began to oppress the people, who looked to powerful landowners for leadership. A man who owned a great deal of property was called a lugal, which literally meant "great man," and in time the lugals became like kings. Thus the theocracy (theeOCK-ruh-see; government controlled by religious leaders) was replaced by a monarchy, or rule by a king. Whereas the ensi were priests who became political leaders, the lugals were kings who became religious leaders as well. In order for a Sumerian ruler to have legitimacy, or the right to rule, he needed to have the approval of the gods: therefore it was necessary to combine political and religious functions. Historians refer to this period of some four centuries as the Early Dynastic Period, "dynastic" (die-NASS-tick) being a form of dynasty. The dynasties of Sumer were different from the dynasties of Egypt, established around the same time: the Sumerian dynasties were much shorter and less powerful, and they spent much of their time at war with one another. Sumer, at least during this phase, would never become a single country in the way that Egypt was—not until it was invaded by a brilliant conqueror from a neighboring land, named Sargon I. He came from the nation of Akkad (AH-kahd) in the north. The Akkadian Empire (2300–2150 B.C.) The Akkadians had come to Mesopotamia with the Semitic tribes who had migrated to the region centuries before. Their culture was similar to that of the Sumerians. When Sargon (SAHR-gahn; c. 2334–2279 B.C.) conquered Sumer, he was not so much destroying a civilization as he was unifying two related peoples. Sargon was not born to royalty; he came from among the people, the son of a single mother who had been forced to give him away when he was an infant. Raised by a fruit grower, he ultimately rose to power, but he never forgot his roots. He worked hard to promote the interests of the working class and the growing middle class by keeping taxes low and encouraging trade. Around 2300 B.C., he conquered the city-states of Sumer and united them under one system, perhaps the first empire in history. Under Akkadian rule, cuneiform developed further. The Akkadians began to produce works of literature. Sargon also moved the government of Sumer further away from a theocracy: now the word ensi came to mean not a representative of a god but a representative of a king. Despite Sargon's achievements, his successors had a hard time holding on to power. His grandson Naram-Sin (NARahm SIN) declared himself "The Lord of the Four Quarters," which was another way of saying "king of the world," but in fact he faced rebellions among the Sumerians. Later Akkadian kings also had to deal with an uncivilized group called the Gutians (GOO-tee-uhns), who invaded from the mountains to the north in about 2150 B.C. Renewal in Ur (2150–2000 B.C.) After a period of unrest, in about 2150 B.C. a group of lugals in the city-state of Ur reestablished order. Unlike Sargon, they favored a highly centralized government, with the other cities under the control of authorities in Ur. The economy, which had been allowed to run free under the Akkadians, was now placed under state control, with priests in charge. Despite the harsh nature of this system, it restored order and allowed for a renewal of Sumerian culture. This period is known as the Third Dynasty. In about 2000 B.C., however, this final chapter of Sumer's history came to an end when Mesopotamia was overrun by a group from the west called the Amorites (AM-uh-rites.) The Amorites would in turn establish the next great Mesopotamian civilization in Babylon. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission. Babylonia (3000–539 B.C.) One of the most brilliant cities of the ancient world was Babylon (BAB-uh-lahn). In its legal codes and its sciences, it stood at the furthest advances of human understanding. Its Hanging Gardens were among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Founded by the Amorites, a previously nomadic (noMAD-ick; wandering) people from Arabia, it existed as early as 3000 B.C. For nearly a thousand years, it remained under the control of Ur and later the Akkadians. But the invasion of Ur in 2000 B.C. was an indication that the Amorites were on the move, and in 1894 B.C., an Amorite chieftain named Sumu-abu (SOO-moo AH-boo) took over Babylon. A century after Sumu-abu would come the only truly great leader in early Babylonia—and one of the great figures of human history. Hammurabi's reign (1792–1750 B.C.) Hammurabi (hah-moo-ROB-ee) began ruling in 1792 B.C. and quickly distinguished himself as a leader of great power. He thwarted, or frustrated, the ambitions of a neighboring king to take over Isin (EE-zin), an important neighboring city, and over the next thirty years defeated the kings of all surrounding regions. Eventually the empire of Hammurabi stretched from Babylon, in the southern part of modern-day Iraq, all the way to the Mediterranean Sea far in the west. He also built many ziggurats and great fortifications (defensive walls) to protect his nation from foreign conquest. But the greatest achievement of Hammurabi was his legal code, or system of laws. Stele depicting King Hammurabi dispensing Code of Laws. Corbis. Reproduced by permission. He was probably not the first leader to create laws, but Hammurabi's is certainly the oldest surviving code, and it continues to influence the law of modern times. The law was written on a stele (STEE-lee), a great stone pillar which bore at the top a carved picture (or a relief sculpture) of Hammurabi receiving the laws from Shamash (SHAH-mosh), the god of justice. Aspects of Hammurabi's code might not seem very fair to modern people. Its justice is built around the idea of "an eye for an eye," and its punishments relate to a person's social rank. Babylonian society was sharply divided according to classes—rich, middle class, and slaves. The rich, or free people, were by far the smallest (but also the most influential) group in society. Next came the common people or middle class, which were a somewhat larger but much less powerful force in Babylonia. At the bottom rung were the slaves, who were the most plentiful group and the lowest-ranking but who nonetheless enjoyed some rights. The Code of Hammurabi clearly established more harsh penalties for a wrong done to a rich person than for one done to a slave, but it was a remarkable legal code because it offered some protection for the more unfortunate members of society. Nor was Hammurabi's code the only great achievement of Babylonia, which made many advances in mathematics and science as well as law. Mathematics, science, and religion It might seem odd to group religion with mathematics and science, because to modern people they are usually separate. But to ancient peoples such as the Babylonians, these concepts were linked. Indeed, Babylonian achievements in astronomy, the scientific study of the stars' movements, resulted from their interest in astrology. Astrology is the study of the position of stars and planets that, according to believers in astrology, have a direct effect on a person's everyday life. Like people of ancient times, modern people read horoscopes, or astrological charts, in hopes of finding out who they will marry, or whether they will get rich, or what other things fate has in store for them. Astrology was and is an unscientific belief system, more like a superstition than a science. Yet it makes use of scientific data or information, and therefore the Babylonians' astrological studies yielded some advances in learning. Though they did not have telescopes, which are essential to the work of a modern-day astronomer, Babylonian astrologers charted the movements of the heavenly bodies they could see with the naked eye. Each of these had an association with a god. The Moon was Sin, a deity (DEE-ih-tee) first worshiped by the Sumerians; the Sun was Shamash, who drove across the sky in a fiery chariot; and so on all the way to Jupiter, which they equated with the supreme god Marduk (MAR-duke). By the time of Nebuchadnezzar II centuries later, Babylonian astronomy had progressed a great deal. The Babylonians were the first to recognize that planets and stars were not the same thing, and they made detailed observations of the Earth's movement around the Sun. They figured that the Earth took 360 days to revolve around the Sun. Their calculation of a year's length was off by 5.25 days, but the number 360 made for easy division. From the Babylonians comes the idea of a circle as having 360 degrees, each degree of which is divided into sixty minutes, which in turn are divided into sixty seconds. These terms are still used for measuring angles and portions of a circle—but of course minutes and seconds are also used for measuring time in a day, which is one of the most notable of all Babylonian contributions to modern life. The Babylonians also divided the period of the Earth's movement around the sun into twelve signs of the astrological zodiac (ZOE-dee-ack) and divided the year into twelve months. Theirs were lunar months, however, meaning that they were based on the twentyeight day cycle of the Moon. Therefore in some years they had to add a thirteenth month to make the calendar work out right. To divide the month, they used the four phases of the Moon as it goes from a new moon to a full moon and back again. A twenty-eight day month divided by four yields a seven-day week—yet another Babylonian contribution to everyday life. The Babylonians divided the period of the Earth's movement around the Sun into twelve signs of the astrological zodiac. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission. A series of invasions (1749–625 B.C.) Although Hammurabi was a strong leader, it would be many centuries before another king of similar strength emerged in Babylonia. In fact, the nation entered a period of decline soon after his death, and the next thousand years would be characterized by a series of invasions from all sides. Hammurabi's son fought off an attack from a nation called the Kassites (KASS-ites), who came from the mountains to the east. The Kassite invasion did not succeed then, but they would return. In the meantime, a group known as the Sealand people swept into Babylonia from the south, taking over cities and establishing their own dynasty. Historians know little about the people of the Sealand, who were much less civilized than the Babylonians and made little cultural impact, but they remained a threat to Babylonia for many years. In 1600 B.C., the Hittites came down from the northwest and sacked, or destroyed, Babylon. Strangely, however, they did not remain in the area, and soon after they departed, the Kassites seized control of Babylonia in 1595 B.C. Words to Know: Mesopotamia Accounting: Maintaining a record of income and expenses. Accountants perform this function for businesses. Assimilate: To be mixed into a larger group of people. Astrology: The study of the stars and planets in the belief that their movement has an effect on personal events. Astronomy: The scientific study of the stars and other heavenly bodies, and their movement in the sky. Barter: Exchange of one item for another. Cabinet: A group of key advisors to a leader. Campaign: A military operation conducted with the aim of conquering an area. Centralized government: Government that is strongly controlled, usually by leaders in a capital city. Chariot: A small and highly mobile open-air wagon drawn by horses. City-states: A city that is also a type of self-contained country. Craftsmen: Skilled workers who produce items according to their specialty. Crescent: The shape of a partial or half-moon. Cultivate: To plant and tend crops on an area of ground. Cuneiform: A type of wedge-shaped writing used in Mesopotamia. Deity: A god. Deportation: Forced removal of a person or a group of people. Divert: To change the course of something. Division of labor: A situation in which different people in a group do different types of work, which enables the larger group to achieve more. Drought: A period of time when there is not enough water in a given area. Dynasty: A group of people, often but not always a family, who continue to hold a position of power over a period of time. Empire: A large political unit that unites many groups of people, often over a wide territory. Epic: A long poem that recounts the adventures of a legendary hero. Excavation: Digging up something that is buried, as for instance, at an archaeological site. Fortifications: Defensive walls. Horoscopes: Astrological charts. Infamous: Having a bad reputation. Ingenious: Extremely clever. Innovation: A new and usually better way of doing things. Ironic: When something is intended to be one way but turns out to be quite different from what was intended; especially refers to the use of words to express the opposite of the words' meaning. Irrigation: A method of keeping crops watered, often by redirecting water supplies. Islam: A faith that arose in Arabia in the A.D. 600s, led by the prophet Muhammad (A.D. 570?–632.) Legitimacy: The right of a ruler to hold power. Lingua franca: A common language by which people of two different native languages can communicate. Lunar: Related to the Moon. Mason or brick mason: A type of craftsman who builds with brick. Middle class: A group in between the rich and the poor, or between the rich and the working class. Millennium: A period of a thousand years. Muslim: A believer in Islam. Mutual: Shared or common between two people or things. Natural resources: Materials from nature, such as trees or minerals, that are useful to the operation of business or a society. Neo-: New or renewed. Nomadic: Wandering. Phonograms, pictograms: Two types of written symbols. The first type which looks like the thing it represents; the second represents a specific syllable. Polytheism: Worship of many gods. Prevailing: Most common or general. Procreation: Parenting children. Prologue: An introduction to a written work. Relief sculpture: A carved picture, distinguished from regular sculpture because it is two-dimensional. Scribes: A small and very powerful group in ancient society who knew how to read and write. Semitic: A term describing a number of groups in the Middle East, including the modern-day Arabs and Israelis. Siege: A sustained military attack against a city. Smelting: Refining a metal, such as iron. Standing army: A full-time, professional army. Stele (or stela): A large stone pillar, usually inscribed with a message commemorating a specific event. Subsistence agriculture: Farming in which the farmers produce just enough food to stay alive, without any surplus to sell. Tell: A small mound of earth heaped over layers of ruins. Theocracy: A government controlled by religious leaders. Thwart: To frustrate or stop somebody from doing something. Trade: The exchange of goods for units of value (money, gold, or other goods) between two individuals or two countries. Usurp: To seize power. Vassal: A ruler who is subject to another ruler. Western: A term referring to the cultures and civilizations influenced by ancient Greece and Rome. Working class: A group between the middle class and the poor, who typically earn a living with their hands rather than behind a desk. Zodiac: An imaginary circle in the sky, divided into twelve constellations or astrological "signs" such as Libra.